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ReBoot VHS and DVD
In the US, four ReBoot VHS tapes were released in 1995 with individual episodes from the first season through Polygram Video in Stereo. Each American/Canadian release contained a single episode: "The Medusa Bug", "Wizards, Warriors, and a Word From Our Sponsor", "The Great Brain Robbery" and "Talent Night". The UK only received two VHS releases with two episodes each: Volume 1 contained "The Tearing" and "Racing the Clock", while Volume two had "The Quick and the Fed" and "Medusa Bug". While the first tape was common in all good retail stores, the second cassette was much harder to come by. The UK VHS volumes were unique in that they included a small booklet; introducing first-time viewers to Mainframe and the cast of characters. Although this book was oddly printed at a 45° angle In Australia, there were four VHS releases with each containing two episodes, comprising the first eight episodes of season one. However, all worldwide ReBoot VHS tapes have long gone out of print, and this format was rendered obsolete by the availability of DVDs. To this day, no episodes from Season two have officially gone into publication or been released on any format; the licensing rights were still retained by Polygram & their library. In 1998, Philips sold PolyGram to Seagram and it was merged into Universal Music Group and Universal Studios. Universal still owns these rights to publish the first and second seasons on home video and will maintain those rights up until they expire in 2009. As of July 2007, Universal has not released the first and second seasons on DVD, nor has any plans to. Despite this legality mess, in 2000 Mainframe Inc struck a deal with A.D. Vision to release and distribute the entire third season onto DVD. Spanning four volumes, all sixteen episodes were published, separated by each story arc of four episodes: "To Mend and Defend", "The Net", "The Web", and "The Viral Wars". These volumes also featured exclusive material and extra footage on the character models and animation tests conducted through Season 3. ADV originally planned to re-release these DVDs at a lower price in 2005 but changed their plans as they decided to cancel several of their titles at the time. Some time afterward, the company lost the publishing rights. Much like the first season VHS tapes, the third season ReBoot DVDs are now out of print and considered rare. Anchor Bay Entertainment released the fourth season in 2001, not with syndicated episodes, but its original form as two films ReBoot: Daemon Rising and ReBoot: My Two Bobs running for 180 minutes on one double-sided DVD as "ReBoot v4.0" and went out of print early 2007. ADV had only released the four discs for Canada and North America's NTSC Region 1 format and consequently did not produce any for Europe or United Kingdom's Region code 2. "Prepare for the original and the best 3-D computer animated series, as it takes you on epic adventures into fantastic, high-tech worlds the like of which you've never seen! Join our colorful heroes--Bob, Dot, Matrix, AndrAIa, Enzo, and Frisket--as they battle for survival against incredible odds and foes old and new in two incredible feature-length made-for-TV movie events!" "'ReBoot: Daemon Rising:' Daemon, a Supervirus, has spread her infection through the Super Computer, the entire Guardian Collective, the forbidding worlds of the Web and most of the known Net. Only one obstacle stands in her way: Mainframe, home system of our heroes. With old viral enemies becoming new allies, the sprites of Mainframe come together against this new foe and fight to free the Net from her infection." "'ReBoot: My Two Bobs:' A second Bob arrives in Mainframe, so confusion reigns, and no one knows which Bob is the copy and which is the original - including the two Bobs themselves! With wedding plans on hold, Dot finds herself torn between the Sprite she loves and other Sprite she loves. And when an old enemy appears in Mainframe, it's up to Bob--the original Bob--to lead the heroes in a fight for survival." However, it was improperly mastered as the 25fps source material was treated as 24fps film speed material, meaning 3:2 pulldown flags were encoded into the MPEG stream which results in the video playing back 4.096% slower and all the voices sounded deeper. Anchor Bay used to offer a corrected and remastered version of the fourth season disc. Anchor Bay re-released the fourth season again in 2004 still with English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound; Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo still maintaining the aspect ratio of anamorphic widescreen 1.78:1. The Fourth season has also been released in Australia in its original PAL video format, it is still in print. Germany has DVD releases of all of season two, while Russia has DVD releases for the first three seasons (though the first few Season three episodes are bizarrely counted as Season two), both also in ReBoot's original PAL encoding format. Ten years after the fourth season aired, the first two seasons of ReBoot are making their first debut on DVD as well as a DVD box set of the entire ReBoot series. Seasons 1 and 2 have been announced to be released on DVD on March 1, 2011. This will include all 23 episodes from the first two seasons of ReBoot. There is no information on bonus features contained in this DVD set. The entire series of ReBoot will be released on March 1, 2011, in a nine-disc DVD set. This box set is entitled ReBoot: The Definitive Mainframe Edition and will contain every episode from all four seasons of ReBoot. It is also announced this set will include several bonus features, including: *20-page booklet *Fast Forward: The Making of ReBoot *A Look Back at ReBoot with Co-Creator Gavin Blair *Original Animated Character Models *Commentaries featuring Producer Christopher Brough, Designer/Storyboard Artist Blair Peters, Animator/Director Zeke Norton, Michael Benyaer (“Bob”), Ian James Corlett (“Glitch Bob”) and Voice Director Michael Donovan (“Phong”/”Mike the TV”) References *ADV "To Mend And Defend" Volume 1 DVD starts the feature presentation off with brief footage taken from Web World Wars. *In Daemon Rising, Little Enzo was naturally unaware of what a 'Nullzilla' was until Phong told him to watch a DVD, presumably an in-joke on the second season which does not yet exist, featuring a modified cover art of ADV's ReBoot: Volume 4 "The Viral Wars" disc. External Links *ReBoot: The Definitive Mainframe Edition *ReBoot: Seasons One and Two DVD set *ADV Films *Anchor Bay Entertainment Category:Media